Columnists

Picture this ... it's a chilly morning in January 2012. You head

Millard Hoyle was the publisher of the Hollister Free Lance many years ago. He was a man well known and well liked in the San Benito County community, and he had a big influence on me going into journalism. Hoyle knew that if a community newspaper like the Free Lance is going to be successful, it needs to serve the public good by informing citizens with local news and providing a forum for diverse local opinion.

 Like most people, you probably save and invest throughout your working years so that you’ll be able to afford a comfortable retirement.

In 1977, the South Valley was a much different place: a smaller, less diverse population meant fewer Jews living in Hollister, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Stuart Blumberg, a Gilroy resident at the time, reflects back on "how alone South County Jews felt, transplanted from elsewhere and seeking spiritual support."

I know, it's not even Halloween yet! I get as annoyed as the next guy when I see Christmas showing up in the stores before Labor Day; however, I felt this was a timely message as many of you are about to begin the annual holiday shopping expedition!

David McRaney, author of "You Are Not So Smart," a book on psychology, insists that procrastination is, in fact, not the result of laziness or lack of time management skills, but rather that, "procrastination is fueled by weakness in the face of impulse and a failure to think about thinking." In addition to love, fear and other familiar emotions I am utterly convinced that procrastination is yet another common denominator of humankind. It plagues both the young and the old, the student and the employee, the homeless and the housewife. But, of course, we all know this.

Here’s some old fashioned American ingenuity for you, and it comes right in the nick of time. In fact, this news just might save your Memorial Day picnic.

As I wander through the Land that Time Forgot

Minnie, our 7-year-old dog, has developed a white haze in her

I had several comments after my recent column about internet pet